In the conveyor art involving selective dispatch to branch lines or multiple delivery points, selectively operable diverter mechanisms are employed which may take the form of curved arms adapted to intercept an article moving along a conveyor and shunt it to a branch line or delivery station utilizing the momentum of the article, gravity and/or conveyor drive to divert the article through reactive biased engagement to an off-line position, or with the diverter arm in a retracted position permit the article to continue on the conveyor past the diverting point. The matter of providing a swinging or otherwise retractable arm with an appropriate bias for accomplishing such diversion is a relatively simple matter of mechanical design and many forms of actuating mechanism for moving such arm between diverting and passing position have been employed. Such mechanisms are relatively simple and dependable in cases where they can be fully positioned before engagement and retracted only after diverting action has been completed. However, difficulties have been encountered providing a dependable mechanism which can cope with the problem of an article on the conveyor having moved part way past the diverting point at the time of diverter actuation; or with the corollary problem of possible retraction of the diverting arm before the diverting action once started has been completed. In many cases an abortive diverting action resulting in a misdelivery may occur where diverter arm movement is started during passage of the article or retracted before diversion is complete. Another problem occurs where an electrical solenoid is employed in providing the motive power for moving a diverter arm where an appreciable amount of time is involved effecting such movement. Since it is characteristic of a solenoid linear actuator that the electric power requirements for effecting a given linear force during the travel period of a solenoid plunger is many times greater than the power requirement for holding the solenoid at the completion of the travel so that any delay in the plunger travel which might arise from the inertia of the diverter arm with positive linkage actuation tends to create an overheating problem leading to malfunctioning of the solenoid; and such problem is greatly amplified by any delay in the completion of the solenoid plunger stroke which might be occasioned by article interference with the travel of the diverter arm.